Every day, hundreds of people descend upon Yates Field House and engage in routine forms of exercise. You have your standard treadmill runners, weight trainers, elliptical andStairmaster gurus and your occasional jacks of all athletic trades. But twice a day, a group of elite athletes makes its way to Yates to train for a grueling race that includes a 1.5-km swim, 40-km bike ride and a 10-km run. These people are members of the Georgetown Triathlon Team. Team members Alex Villec (COL ’13) and Caroline Stout (COL ’13) work hard to balance training for triathlon events with a full course load at Georgetown, all while trying to maintain a thriving social life.
With only three members at its inception, the Georgetown Triathlon Team has grown to include 30 competitive triathletes and nearly 80 members on its roster. Each semester, the team competes in anywhere from three to six USA Triathlon-sanctioned events. Along with their daily workouts, triathletes somehow balance their rigorous academic schedules and active social lives. There are no team-established minima in terms of GPA or course load requirements; each team member must decide how much he can afford to put into the triathlon team without sacrificing other aspects of his Georgetown experience. According to Stout, keeping that balance can mean missing a few practices during midterm and finals weeks.
While physically challenging, triathlons are also very much a test of mental stamina. Consequently, triathletesmust be prepared to meet both challenges. According to Villec, there are three important things a successfultriathlete needs to master. “[You must have] a belief in and commitment to,daily incremental progress, steadfast focus on a set of goals and the ability to prioritize toward those ends and a relatively high pain threshold,” he said.
The motivation to become a tri-athlete is different for each individual. Some are inspired purely by the physical challenge. For others, being a triathlete gives them a chance to reach that state in which mind and body are fully in sync. Whatever the case may be, most people who aren’t triathletes think that members of this community are essentially crazy. When asked how she would respond to such an accusation, Stout said, “Everyone is fighting a battle. I like to know what mine is.”
This coming April, 14 Hoyas — seven males and seven females — will head to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to represent the Georgetown Triathlon Team in the USA Triathlon Collegiate Nationals. Each one of them will face the difficult task of pushing his body and mind beyond a limit most human beings will never know exists — at least not from personal experience. The triathletes will arrive at the racecourse early in the morning to set up transition stations and to survey the course. Before the race, they will meet other college students as competitors. But from both Villec and Stout’s past experiences, they will leave with new friends who endure the same challenges they do on a daily basis.
